1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a tray-type disk drive apparatus that is most suitable for application to a CD/DVD player and the like, for example, and more particularly a technical field of a disk loading mechanism.
2. Description of the Related Art
As shown in FIG. 49, a general type of disk loading mechanism in a tray-type disk drive apparatus such as CD/DVD player or the like is constructed such that an optical pickup unit 202 is attached at the central upper part of a bottom 201a in a mechanical deck (acting as a reference table for all the mechanisms) 201 called a base chassis in such a manner that the optical pickup unit can be freely ascended or descended. In this case, the optical pickup unit 202 is made such that a spindle motor 204 is vertically installed to face upward on a unit base 203, a disk table 205 is mounted on the upper end of the spindle motor 204 and an optical pickup 208 having an objective lens 207 installed vertically to face upward on a sled 206 through a double-axis actuator is mounted at the upper part of the unit base 203 at a rearward position of the spindle motor 204. Then, this optical pick up unit 202 is mounted at the upper part of the ascending/descending frame 209 through a plurality of rubber insulators 210 in a horizontal manner, a pair of right and left fulcrum pins 211 formed on the same central part at both right and left sides of the rear end of the ascending/descending frame 209 are fitted to a pair of right and left fulcrum pin supporting segments 212 formed at both right and left sides of the rear end of the upper part of the mechanical deck 201 and the front end of the ascending/descending frame 209 can be ascended or descended by an oscillating motion in upward or downward direction against the mechanical deck 201 around a pair of right and left fulcrum pins 211.
Then, a slider cam 213 is vertically attached to the upper portion of the front end of the mechanical deck 201 in such a way that it can be slid in rightward or leftward direction crossing at a right angle with a forward or rearward direction, a cam follower pin 215 formed at the central part of the front end of the ascending/descending frame 209 is slidably engaged with an inclined cam groove 214 formed in slant state to the rear surface of the slider cam 213, a loading motor 216 is attached vertically in upward direction to the lower surface of one side at the front end of the mechanical deck 201, a slider cam driving pinion 217 fixed to the upper segment of the front end of the mechanical deck 201 is engaged with a rack 218 formed at the front surface of the slider cam 213. Then, the slider cam 213 is slid and driven in a rightward or leftward direction through the rack 218 by the pinion 217 normally or inversely rotated and driven by the loading motor 216 through a transmission mechanism 219, thereby the cam follower pin 215 is driven to be ascended or descended in an upward or downward direction by the slant cam groove 214, the front end of the ascending/descending frame 209 is ascended or descended in an upward or downward direction by an oscillating motion around the pair of right and left fulcrum pins 211 against the mechanical deck 201.
Then, a disk tray driving pinion 220 is rotatably attached to the upper part of the other side of the front end of the mechanical deck 201 and the pinion 220 is cooperated with the slider cam driving pinion 217. Then, the disk tray 221 is inserted horizontally from a tray inlet or outlet of a front panel (not shown) fixed to the front end of the mechanical deck 201 into an upper part in the mechanical deck 201, and the disk tray 221 is attached in a horizontal state to be slidable in a forward or rearward direction at the upper part in the mechanical deck 201 over the pinions 217, 220, a transmission mechanism 219, a slider cam 218 and the upper part of the optical pickup unit 202. Then, a rack (not shown) of the disk tray 221 is driven by the disk tray driving pinion 220 normally or inversely driven to rotate by the loading motor 216 through the pinion 217 so as to perform both a loading (a retracting action) into the mechanical deck 201 of the disk tray 221 and an unloading (a drawing-out action) toward a forward side out of the front panel of the mechanical deck 201.
Then, a chucking pulley supporting plate 222 is mounted in a horizontal state at the upper part of position where it is displaced at slight front end sides of both right and left side walls 201b of the mechanical deck 201, a circular chucking pulley fixing hole 223 is formed at a position just above the spindle motor 204 by the chucking pulley supporting plate 222, and a disk-like chucking pulley 224 is rotatably supported within the chucking pulley fixing hole 223 under a state having play in upward or downward direction and horizontal direction.
An entire thickness T1 of the related art disk tray 221 is formed to be thick by more than 15 mm, a deep concave section 225 of approximate inverse frustum of circular cone is formed above position displaced at the front end of the disk tray 221, a large-diameter type disk outer circumferential mounting surface 226 with a diameter of about 12 cm is formed in a circular shape at the outer circumference of the bottom of the concave section 225, a small-diameter type disk outer circumferential mounting surface 227 with a diameter of about 8 cm is formed in a concentric circle shape and in one step-down state at the central side of the bottom of the concave section 225, and a pair of right and left recesses 228 are formed at both right and left side positions of the concave section 225. A large central opening 229 formed from the central part of the concave section 225 toward its rear side is formed at the bottom of the disk tray 221.
Then, at the time of disk loading, the outer circumference of a 12-cm laser disk LD or the like of a CD/DVD and the like is mounted in a horizontal state above a large diameter type disk outer circumference mounting surface 226 with a diameter of about 12 cm within the concave section 225 of the disk tray 221, two pinions 217, 220 are normally driven to rotate under a normal rotational driving of the loading motor 216, the disk tray 221 is loaded (retracted) in a horizontal state into a retracted position in the mechanical deck 201, thereafter the slider cam 213 is slid and driven toward one side by the pinion 217, the front end of the optical pickup unit 202 is oscillated upwardly around a pair of right and left fulcrum pins 211 of the ascending/descending frame 209 and the optical pickup unit 202 is lifted from the descended position where it is inclined in a slant forward and lower direction to the ascending position where it keeps a horizontal attitude.
Then, both the disk table 205 of the spindle motor 204 and the objective lens 207 of the optical pickup 208 are inserted from below into the bottom opening 229 of the disk tray 221, the disk table 204 is fitted from below into a center hole LDa of the laser disk LD, the laser disk LD is floated above the disk outer circumference mounting surface 226 of the disk tray 221 and the laser disk LD is chucked with magnet in a horizontal state on the disk table 205 by the chucking pulley 224.
After that, while the laser disk LD is being driven to rotate by the spindle motor 204, the objective lens 207 of the optical pickup 208 is searched in both inner and outer circumferential directions of the laser disk LD by the sled 206 to reproduce (read) data.
In addition, at the time of disk unloading, it performs an opposite operation to that of disk loading and the two pinions 217, 220 are driven to Reversely rotate by reverse rotational driving of the loading motor 216. That is, the slider cam 213 is slid and driven to the other side by the pinion 217, the front end of the optical pickup unit 202 is descended from the ascending position to the descending position by its oscillating motion, the chucking of the laser disk LD with the chucking pulley 224 is released, both disk table 205 and the objective lens 206 are descended downwardly of the central opening 229 of the disk tray 221 and at the same time the outer circumference of the laser disk LD is mounted again in a horizontal state above the large diameter type disk outer circumference mounting surface 226 of the disk tray 221.
After that, the disk tray 221 is unloaded (drawn out) in a horizontal state up to the leading-out position out of the mechanical deck 201 by the pinion 220.
A pair of right and left recesses 228 formed at both right and left sides of the deep concave section 225 of the disk tray 221 are formed so as to facilitate removal of the laser disk LD from within the deep concave section 225. As shown by a dash-single-dot line in FIG. 50, a forefinger HDa of a right hand HD of a right-handed person is inserted from above into the central hole LDa of the laser disk LD, a thumb HDb is inserted from a side into the left side recess 128 to press a part of the outer circumferential surface LDb of the laser disk LD from its lateral side, the laser disk LD is held with both forefinger HDa and thumb HDb and the disk can be easily taken out above the concave section 225.
However, in the case of the general type of disk loading mechanism of the related art constructed as above, this mechanism was constituted such that the laser disk LD is loaded and unloaded (inputted or outputted) in a horizontal direction by the disk tray 16 against the mechanical deck 101 and in turn the optical pickup unit 102 is ascended or descended by the oscillating motion against the mechanical deck 101, resulting in that in particular, movable portions such as a fitted part between a pair of right and left fulcrum pins 111 of the ascending/descending frame 109 and a pair of right and left fulcrum pin supporting segments 112 of the mechanical deck 101, an engagement segment between the cam follower pin 115 and the slant cam groove 114 of the slider cam 113 or the slide engagement part of the slider cam 113 against the mechanical deck 101 required a certain clearance and so it was not possible to restrict looseness of the ascending/descending frame 109 against the mechanical deck 101 to zero. Due to this fact, there occurred some problems that when a certain vibration occurred at the spindle motor 104 at the time of reproduction of data of the laser disk LD with a displaced center of gravity, the ascending/descending frame 109 showed a resonance, a mechanical noise was produced, an external disturbance was generated at the double-axis servo in the tracking at the objective lens 106 and a data reproducing error was easily caused. In addition, in the case of the structure in which the optical pickup unit 102 is ascended or descended within the mechanical deck 101 through its oscillating motion, it was required to set a high movable space of the optical pickup unit 102. It was necessary to make a thin-walled structure of the mechanical deck 101 in view of a restriction in size of the mechanical deck 101; a sufficient strength of the mechanical deck 101 was hardly kept; and a problem of resonance of the mechanical deck 101 was also generated.
In view of the foregoing, in reference to the earlier invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. Hei 2-263354, applicant of the present invention has already developed the disk loading mechanism in which the optical pickup unit is directly fixed on the bottom of the mechanical deck and after the disk tray was retracted into the mechanical deck in a horizontal state, the disk tray itself was directly descended in a vertical manner.
However, in this case, a pair of right and left slider cams for directly supporting the disk tray and for ascending/descending the disk tray through parallel motion in a vertical direction in respect to the mechanical deck are slidably attached to both right and left sides of the mechanical deck in a forward or rearward direction, a linkage mechanism for aligning phases of a pair of these right and left slider cams is fixed to the mechanical deck, and the disk tray is driven in a vertical direction by the pair of right and left slider cams, resulting in that the entire mechanism on the mechanical deck becomes large in size and the disk loading mechanism and subsequently the entire mechanical deck becomes large in size. In addition, the structure in which the disk tray itself is driven in a vertical direction could not constitute a differential mechanism utilizing a motion of the disk tray in a horizontal direction, resulting in that there occurred a problem that an intermittent driving mechanism must be constituted only with the driving gear and a phase alignment between a horizontal driving and a vertical driving of the disk tray becomes difficult, its structure is remarkably complex and its cost is increased.
The present invention has been invented to overcome the aforesaid problems and it is an object of the present invention to provide a disk drive apparatus realized a simplified structure and a high reliability.
The disk drive apparatus of the present invention accomplishing the aforesaid object is constructed such that the spindle motor and data recording and/or data reproducing means are installed on the mechanical deck, the tray ascending/descending unit is attached to the mechanical deck in such a way that it can be ascended or descended in a vertical direction, the disk tray is attached to the tray ascending/descending unit in such a way that it can be loaded or unloaded in a horizontal direction, a loading/unloading driving of the disk tray and an ascending/descending driving of the tray ascending/descending unit are carried out in sequence by one motor-type loading drive mechanism attached to the tray ascending/descending unit.
The disk drive apparatus of the present invention constituted as described above is made such that the tray ascending/descending unit is attached to the mechanical deck in such a way that it can be ascended or descended in a vertical direction, the disk tray is attached to the tray ascending/descending unit in such a way that it can be loaded or unloaded in a horizontal direction and after the disk tray is retracted in a horizontal direction, it can be descended in a vertical direction, so that the spindle motor and the data recording and/or reproducing means can be directly mounted on the mechanical deck. Further, since the loading and unloading drive of the disk tray as well as the ascending and descending drive of the disk tray are carried out by the one-motor type loading drive mechanism fixed to the tray ascending/descending, so that a phase alignment between the loading/unloading drive and the ascending/descending drive of the disk tray is not required.
The disk drive apparatus of the present invention constituted as described above can apply the following effects.
The present invention is made such that the tray ascending/descending unit can be fixed to the mechanical deck in such a way that it can be ascended or descended in a vertical direction, the disk tray is attached to the tray ascending/descending unit in such a way that it can be loaded or unloaded in a horizontal direction, after the disk tray is pulled into the device in a horizontal direction, it can be descended in a vertical direction, so that the spindle motor and the data recording and/or reproducing means can be directly mounted on the mechanical deck, both disk tray loading/unloading drive and the tray ascending/descending unit ascending/descending drive are carried out by one motor-type loading drive mechanism fixed to the tray ascending/descending unit, so that phase alignment between the loading/unloading drive of the disk tray and the ascending/descending drive can be eliminated. Accordingly, it is possible to realize the disk drive apparatus of high quality capable of assuring rigidity of the mechanical deck, preventing resonance caused by looseness of data recording and/or reproducing means and recording and/or reproducing data in a high precision manner. In addition, since one motor type loading drive mechanism does not require any phase alignment at all, it is possible to simplify the structure, make a small-sized and lightweight unit and further it is not necessary to arrange the loading drive mechanism at the mechanical deck acting as the fixing part, so that its rigidity and sealing close characteristic can be assured.
The present invention is made such that one motor type loading drive mechanism is comprised of the J-shaped guide grooves and the J-shaped racks formed in parallel with the disk tray; one loading motor fixed to the tray ascending/descending unit; guide pins oscillatably attached to the tray ascending/descending unit through a differential arm and engaged with the J-shaped guide grooves and pinions inserted into the outer circumferences of the guide pins, engaged with the J-shaped racks, normally or reversely driven to rotate by the loading motor; a link arm oscillatably attached to the tray ascending/descending unit and oscillatably driven by the differential arm; a pair of right and left slider cams attached in parallel to both right and left sides of the tray ascending/descending unit and driven to be slid in an opposite direction of the forward or rearward direction by the link arm; and a pair of right and left cam mechanisms formed between both right and left sides of the pair of right and left sides of the pair of right and left slider cams and inside portions of both right and left side walls of the mechanical deck and having slants in forward or rearward direction set in opposite directions to each other, wherein simplification of the structure of the loading drive mechanism can be realized.
The present invention is constructed such that a chucking pulley for chucking the disk-like recording medium pulled into the mechanical deck by the disk tray and descended into the descending position to the spindle motor is supported at the tray ascending/descending unit, so that reliability in operation of the disk chucking can be improved.